Rowland — The Apple Fell Far From The Tree

The vast kickback program of 1930s Waterbury Mayor T. Frank Hayes was exposed by John Rowland's grandfather, Sherwood Rowland.

The vast kickback program of 1930s Waterbury Mayor T. Frank Hayes was exposed by John Rowland's grandfather, Sherwood Rowland.

TERENCE MARIANI | OP-ED

Op-Ed: There once was a good Rowland

Sometimes history repeats itself; in former Gov. John G. Rowland's case it reversed itself. The apple fell a long way from the tree. He was sentenced Wednesday to prison for the second time. It seems appropriate to recall that there was a Rowland who gained fame for being on the right side of the law.

In the 1930s, the Rowland name was well known and highly regarded in political circles for the crucial role played by Sherwood Rowland, grandfather of the disgraced former governor, in the conviction of then-Waterbury Mayor and Connecticut's Lt. Gov. T. Frank Hayes and his chief co-conspirator, Waterbury Comptroller Daniel Leary.

Hayes and Leary were first elected in 1929 and took office on Jan. 1, 1930. For the next eight years — the team was re-elected four times — they engaged in a colossal, methodical and brazen fleecing of Waterbury taxpayers.

They created and operated a simple and slick bilking system based on kickbacks. They would give confederates sham jobs or contracts and get most of the money back. A favorite area was trucking.

In upholding the subsequent convictions of Hayes and Leary the state Supreme Court cited an instance in which a co-conspirator, who was contracted for an alleged three-year truck rental, actually received only some $15,000 of the $72,009 paid by the city. The co-conspirator, the court noted, did not even own a truck.

Hayes — who was also elected Connecticut's part-time lieutenant governor in 1935 — and his crew incorporated labor-saving and obfuscation devices. Checks needed to distribute the kickbacks were pre-printed and not numbered. The checks included the lithographed signatures of the mayor and city clerk, two of three required signatures. The third signature was Comptroller Leary's, and he was always available on short notice to sign.

The city might have descended into bankruptcy but for the election in 1937. Hayes won again but this time Sherwood Rowland defeated Leary by 33 votes. The lone Republican in the city administration, Rowland knew there was trouble and wasted no time in addressing it. He called for an immediate audit by an outside firm and he appointed a new comptroller staff to assist the auditors.

Hayes and others tried to block Rowland at every turn. The finance board, Hayes appointees all, issued a gag order barring Rowland from making statements or disclosing any financial records. He was not scared off. He simply ignored the order and released the examples of corruption when he found them. (He had the full support of the Waterbury Republican-American newspaper, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for its coverage of the municipal graft.)

At one point, one of the city's accountants complained to Hayes and Leary about irregular financial practices. He was told that he did not understand politics, to mind his own business and to do as he was told.

He did do as he was told and he did more. He kept personal control of his working papers, reconciliation statements and adding machine tapes. They were to prove invaluable.

A grand jury began following Rowland's leads. Hayes responded by destroying evidence, a plan that mostly succeeded. The Supreme Court noted the conspirators' "frantic endeavors to conceal their peculations" with " three highly relevant fires," including one, supervised by the street department superintendent, that torched the duplicate truck rental vouchers. Another was in the bank that cashed the kickback checks.

Ultimately, even though Hayes and Leary successfully destroyed virtually all of the direct evidence of corruption, Rowland's efforts produced a sea of circumstantial evidence along with the accountant's documents which the state Supreme Court found sufficient to support a jury's verdict against Hayes, Leary and 21 of their co-conspirators. Hayes and Leary each received sentences of 10 to 15 years.

On Sherwood Rowland's passing it was said of him, "His public life made the name 'Rowland' a byword for civic virtue throughout Connecticut."

But for his former governor grandson, not so much. He is looking forward, in the words of twice-convicted felon and former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr., to "another enforced vacation in a federally funded gated community." This time, though, it wasn't kitchen cabinets or a hot tub. It was a phantom contract.

Terence Mariani is a lawyer and former newspaper and television journalist. He was press secretary to Gov. Thomas J. Meskill and counsel to Gov. Lowell P. Weicker.